Second generation
by Eledhwen
Summary: Maxie Milligan finds her day rudely shattered by the sudden arrival of a storm and a crazy man in a blue box. Why does he find her familiar? Spoilers for season 3. Chapter 7 added complete.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC. Apart from Maxie._

**Second Generation**

It had been, until that point, a fairly normal sort of day. Maxie had got up, eaten breakfast (cereal, juice, tea), gone to school, stressed about forthcoming exams with her friends, and set off home again. That was when the day stopped being normal and became quite odd.

First of all the weather changed, abruptly and violently. Clouds rolled in, the wind suddenly picked up, and it began to rain. Maxie cursed, pulled her hood over her head, and started to walk faster. The streets were emptying as people sought cover, and she contemplated finding shelter in a shop - but she was already wet through, so there was little to be gained. She carried on walking.

Perhaps because she was more focused on missing puddles, Maxie succeeded in walking slap bang into the wooden wall of a large blue box that appeared to be standing in the middle of the pavement. She only had time to register the box's existence and wonder briefly what it was doing there before a door opened, and a man leapt out of the box.

"Show yourselves!" he called into the rain. Maxie turned from examining the box and examined the man instead; tall, thin, a rather cool long coat, and eyes currently glaring at the storm. "By the Treaty of Karkanuk," the man shouted, "I command you to show yourselves!"

Maxie began to back away from box and man both, certain that she had encountered a loony. Quite what the loony was doing in a blue box was beyond her, but given the weather it was worth getting out of there, and soonish.

But she found her road was blocked by something - something invisible, because no matter what she did she could not take another step. She tried putting out her hand, and that turned out to be a bad idea, because an electric shock caught her.

Maxie turned her attention back to the man from the box. He was now gesticulating wildly at a vague shape in front of him, talking at a million miles an hour, appearing from tone and gesture to be getting nowhere. He stuck a hand inside his suit, and pulled out a gadget glowing blue. Maxie watched, not really sure what she was seeing. There was a flurry of noise, of rain and thunder and lightning, and then the rain had stopped and the shape was gone.

She put out her hand again and felt nothing. 

The man was tucking his gadget away again, and pulling out a key instead, walking towards the blue box.

"Hey!" said Maxie.

He stopped, and looked at her as though he was seeing her for the first time. "What?" he said.

"What?" she repeated. "What the … what was that?!"

"Nothing to worry about," the man said, breezily. "All gone. Shouldn't be back. Off you go."

"No," said Maxie, surprising herself. "That was weird. This -" she pointed at the blue box, "this is weird. And as for you …" 

"Let me guess," he said. "Weird?" 

"Yeah." Maxie stuck her hands in her pockets.

He did the same. "If you really want to know: I just averted an invasion of the Bibliosks. They won't be back. They like the electricity on this planet; feed off it, use it to grow and multiply. And now you're going to turn round and go back to school, and I'm going to leave. Goodbye." He waved at her, waggling his fingers. 

"I'm on my way home," said Maxie, idiotically. "An invasion of the _whats_?"

"Bibliosks," said the man from the box.

"Right," she said. "And they're from another planet."

"Absolutely," he nodded. "Three thousand light years away. Remarkable race, really, but it doesn't give them carte blanche to waltz on to Earth." He stopped talking, and looked at Maxie, hard. She felt as if she was under a microscope, and fidgeted. "You look familiar." 

Maxie pushed at her hair. "Do I? Never seen you before in my life. Whoever you are."

"I'm the Doctor," said the man. "Who are you?"

"Maxie Milligan," said Maxie.

He scratched his head. "Milligan … Milligan … why does that ring a bell?"

"Doctor what?" asked Maxie.

"Just the Doctor," said the man, cheerily, and as if it did not matter. "Never mind. Off you go, off home." He turned, and began to head towards the box again.

"That title has to be earned," Maxie said. "S'what my mum says, anyhow. Says you can't be a doctor just by saying you are."

The man - the Doctor - had stopped walking, and now he looked round at her. "I don't suppose … what's your mum called, Maxie Milligan?"

Maxie caught his eyes; there was something strangely intense about them. She thought about not answering, about turning and running, but changed her mind.

"Martha," she said.

The Doctor's face split in a grin, a grin full of joy and life and energy. "Oh, _yes_!" he said, taking a few quick steps towards her. Maxie backed away. "Martha Jones. Doctor Martha Jones. And you're her daughter!"

Maxie stared at him. "You know my mum?"

"Your mum saved the world," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, right," said Maxie. "She's saved a lot of people, but the world - not quite yet."

"She saved the world," the man said, something in his voice and his dark eyes that said he was utterly serious. "Saved the rest of your family too, as it happens."

"What, Grandma and Grandad and Aunt Tish and Uncle Leo?" asked Maxie, bewildered. "Well, I guess they're part of the world."

The man grinned at her again, flashing from serious to manic in a second, and grabbed her hand. "They are indeed! Maxie Milligan, you are going to show me where you live."

She tugged her hand back. "Hey! Wait a moment. First of all, no stranger touches me without my permission, right? Second, how do I know you really know my mum?"

He nodded. "Right. Quite right. All right." He put a hand in his pocket and pulled out a mobile phone - at least Maxie decided it had to be a phone, although it looked like a model from an old film. The Doctor flipped it open, pressed some buttons, and displayed the screen. It read "Martha Jones" followed by Maxie's mum's number.

"Oh," she said. "Okay, how do I know she'll want to see you?" 

The Doctor considered that, and waved it away with a flick of his hands. "If she doesn't, she'll slap me." He frowned. "Actually, statistically speaking there's a very high probability that she'll slap me. Mothers tend to do that. I'll take the chance."

Maxie looked hard at him, and made her decision. "All right. This way." She set off, the Doctor keeping pace easily with his hands in his pockets. "So, because Mum's never once mentioned you, how did you meet her? You must have been pretty young."

He looked down at her. "In her hospital. When she was a medical student. It, erm, got taken to the moon."

"To the where?" asked Maxie, not sure she had heard him right.

The Doctor pointed upwards. "The moon. Small satellite rock orbiting Earth. Neutral territory, you see; nobody owns it."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Right. The moon. Funny, you'd have thought Mum would have mentioned going to the moon."

"Oh, the moon's nothing!" said the Doctor. "Me and your mum, we went to New New York. We saw Shakespeare's lost play performed at the Globe Theatre. Visited the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius. Did a spot of shopping on Artemis. We saw the universe together."

"Right," said Maxie again, wondering exactly what her mother's reaction was going to be when she got home with the crazy guy she'd picked up outside a blue box.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC. Apart from Maxie._

**Second Generation**

Her mother's car was parked outside the house when they arrived. Maxie pulled out her door key and let herself in, the Doctor following her.

"Mum!" she called. "Mum!" 

"Kitchen!" came back the shout.

"Wait here," Maxie told the Doctor, and went into the kitchen.

Her mother was chopping tomatoes for a salad, and she looked round as Maxie came in. "Goodness, you're soaked," she said.

"It rained," said Maxie. "Then it stopped. Erm, Mum, I met this guy …"

Martha put down her knife and turned around. "At school? What's he done?"

"Not like that." Maxie put down her bag. "It was raining, right? And I was walking along, and there was this box, right in the middle of the street. A big, blue, wooden box."

Her mother had gone very still. "A blue box? About eight feet high?"

"Yeah." Maxie nodded. "And there was this man."

Rolling down her sleeves, Martha pulled over her handbag and began searching for something. "How long ago?"

"Half an hour," said Maxie. "But, you see …"

She never got to finish her sentence, and her mother never found whatever she was looking for, because the Doctor chose that moment to come into the kitchen.

"Hello, Martha Jones," he said, leaning against the doorframe.

Martha gave a gasp, dropped her handbag and in two steps was across the room and hugging the Doctor, who picked her up and swung her round, laughing.

"Doctor Jones!" he said, eventually, putting her down and examining her intently. "Still saving the world."

"Not quite," Maxie's mother returned. "One person at a time, these days."

"It counts," said the Doctor. "Never forget it counts. But here you are, and here's a daughter - looks just like you - and how's Tom?"

"You know my dad too?" asked Maxie, feeling a bit left out and wondering why her parents had never even mentioned this man. "This is getting crazier. Mum, he said you went to the moon!"

Martha smiled warmly at the Doctor. "We did."

"A platoon of Judoon on the moon," said the Doctor, cryptically. "Good times."

"You died!" exclaimed Martha.

"You brought me back to life," the Doctor replied, grinning at her again. "Like I said. Good times. Oh, it's wonderful to see you, Martha!"

They launched into what sounded, to Maxie, like over-excited gobbledegook; full of "do you remember" and "what about" and "I thought I was going to die!" She sighed, picked up her bag, and went to put dry clothes on.

By the time she was back, Martha had made a cup of tea and was showing the Doctor Maxie's childhood picture album. Maxie stood and watched them for a moment, and then decided she had had enough.

"I've had enough!" she informed them. "A man in a blue box tells me he's fought off library books …"

"Bibliosks," said the Doctor. 

"Whatever. Things, from another planet. Then he tells me he knows my mum. _Then_ he tells me my mum saved the world. And went to the moon. And met Shakespeare. And I never knew any of this?" 

"Darling," said Martha, "I'm sorry. I'd've told you, only … well, when you put it like that it all sounds a bit mad."

"It sounds a lot mad!" said Maxie. "Who is this guy, anyway? What sort of name is the Doctor? Where are you from?" she demanded, turning on him.

"Oh, nowhere and everywhere," he said lightly; but Maxie caught the look her mother gave him, and wondered what it meant. "Another planet," he went on. "A long way away."

Maxie threw her hands in the air. "Mum!" she said. "Are you sure you didn't meet him on your psych rotation?"

Martha stood up, and went to the black medical bag sitting in the corner of the room. She pulled out a stethoscope, and passed it to Maxie. "Listen," she said, drawing Maxie over to the Doctor and placing the stethoscope over his heart.

"He has a heart," said Maxie.

"Shhh. Keep listening." Martha moved the stethoscope across to the right-hand side of the Doctor's chest. Maxie listened, to the steady thump-thump, thump-thump, of a heartbeat. A second heartbeat. She looked up, and caught his smile.

"Oh," she said, and sat down on the floor. "You have two hearts," she added.

"Much more efficient respiratory system," said the Doctor cheerfully. 

Putting the stethoscope away, Martha looked at him sternly. "Don't knock the human race, Doctor," she said. "We're tougher than we look."

"I know; oh, I know!" he said. "Core of steel. Metaphorically."

Martha cleared away the empty mugs and came back to the lounge, perching on the sofa next to the Doctor.

"How long has it been, for you?" she asked. "Is there … anyone, at the moment?" 

"Not right now," said the Doctor. "There was, for a while. But they left. Couldn't say how long it's been - time isn't linear, you know …"

"It's a big ball of timey-wimey stuff!" Martha said, and they both laughed. Maxie shook her head at them, thinking they were both acting like children despite Martha being her mother and the Doctor, apparently, being an alien. "Last I saw you was at the wedding," Martha said. "Has that happened yet? You brought that redhead." 

"Donna!" said the Doctor. "Yes, that happened."

"What happened to Donna?" asked Martha.

The Doctor felt in a pocket and pulled out a photo. Maxie got up and went round the back of the sofa to look over her mother's shoulder. The picture showed a buxom woman with red hair and a man - at least Maxie assumed it was a man - with his arm around her shoulders. The man had purple skin.

"She fell in love," the Doctor said. "That's Ash. She's working as a receptionist on his planet. Said she was happy, didn't want to come home." He rubbed his cheek. "Her mum slapped me when I told her." 

"Her mum was right to slap you," said Martha. "I'm glad she's happy, though."

He nodded. "So'm I. And in the right universe."

Maxie thought she saw a wave of emotion flicker across her mother's face, but it was gone straight away. "So, Doctor, now you've dealt with the latest alien threat, what next?" Martha asked.

The Doctor sat back, putting his arms behind his head and his feet on the coffee table. "Same old," he said. "Time, space, blah de blah." 

"What about the TARDIS?" asked Martha.

"Oh, she's fine," said the Doctor airily. "Runs like a dream." 

"What's a tardis?" Maxie put in.

"My ship," said the Doctor, "the best ship in the universe. You saw her."

Maxie thought back. "You mean the blue box?"

"That's the one!" he said.

"The one that you left in the middle of the street?" Maxie pursued. 

He leapt to his feet. "I did, didn't I?" He looked at her. "Want to come and see her?"

Maxie glanced at her mother, who was smiling indulgently at the Doctor. "Yeah," she replied.

"Martha?" asked the Doctor. "TARDIS rescue mission? Well, not rescue … salvage. Before one of your over-zealous parking wardens tries to take her away?"

Martha seemed to need little persuading, and in a short time the three of them were walking back the way Maxie and the Doctor had come. There was a note on the fridge for Maxie's father, in case, Martha said, they were late home. As Tom was not due back from his night shift until the morning, Maxie thought this was rather unnecessary. But then the whole situation was odd.

The Doctor talked incessantly on the way back to his ship, rattling off streams of information, naming places and people that made no sense to Maxie - and mostly no sense to Martha either, judging by her expression. Half-trotting to keep up with the Doctor's rapid pace, Maxie reflected that this was not how she had planned to spend the evening; she was unsure that her English teacher would accept the excuse of visiting an alien spaceship if her essay on Pride & Prejudice was not handed in.

The blue box was still in the middle of the street, and the Doctor stroked its side with a gentle hand as they arrived before turning and spreading his arms.

"Maxie Milligan, may I present to you the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space." He took out his key and unlocked the door. "Go on."

Maxie looked at him, and then walked around the box once. "It's not very big," she pointed out. 

Her mother was smiling broadly. "Go on," she encouraged.

"If this is a joke," Maxie warned, "I'll … well, I'll think of something." She put out a hand and pushed open the door of the box.

Later in her life, Maxie would remember the moment she first stepped inside the TARDIS, although it always seemed like some sort of incredible dream. Above her head there were high arches of some unknown material, and a soft golden light suffused the room. There was a tall column, glowing gently green, in the centre of the room, and a console covered in levers and buttons and dials and screens surrounding it.

She turned around and went out again, to double-check that she had just walked into a small blue box. The Doctor seemed to be smirking slightly. Maxie went back in, followed by Martha and the Doctor. 

"It's … okay, this is going to sound obvious, but …" she looked at the Doctor. "It's bigger on the inside." 

Martha let out a laugh, and put her arm around Maxie's shoulders. "We thought you might say that."

"Almost _everybody_ says that," added the Doctor. "You lot, you're so predictable." He flung off his coat, and crossed to the console, running his hand along the edge. "But it's all right, we're used to it. And she _is_ bigger on the inside." He began throwing switches. "Where shall we go?"

"Home," said Martha. "You can park in the back garden."

"Oh, but that's so boring!" the Doctor exclaimed, pausing in his switch-flicking. "We could go anywhere, see anyone!" 

"Thanks, but not now," said Martha. "I had a long day at work - a lot of _very_ tricky cases - and Maxie has an essay to write."

They both looked at Maxie, who shrugged. "Nobody else will have finished it."

"Not the point," her mother said.

The Doctor sighed. "All right, then, home it is." He pulled a lever, and the central column began to move. A short while later, the ship lurched, and the Doctor seized a hammer and began hitting the console with enthusiasm. 

"There we go, safely back!" he said. "Sorry about the landing. She prefers long distances."

"He never could drive this thing," Martha said to Maxie. "First trip, he promised me an alien planet and we ended up underground." 

"Hey! I rescued you from there," the Doctor put in, with an aggrieved look. "And you got to see the planet. New New Earth," he added, to Maxie. He put down the hammer, and pressed a few buttons; the background hum faded.

Martha crossed to the door, pushed it open, and put her head out. "For once, perfect landing," she said. "Now, come in, and eat something. You're skinnier than ever."

"Mothers!" said the Doctor, but he followed Martha out of the TARDIS dutifully. 

There were more incredible tales over the dinner table, of aliens and far-off planets and long-gone times. Maxie made them describe Shakespeare several times, and wondered at the Doctor's strange reluctance to say much about the mysterious Daleks - although her mother did her best to fill in the gaps. All too quickly, dinner came to an end.

Maxie took her plate over to the sink. "Well," she said, "essay."

"Essay," agreed her mother.

"Good to meet you," Maxie said to the Doctor, thinking it was a rather inadequate thing to say to an alien.

"You too, Maxie Milligan," he said, warmly. "You too."

Maxie headed up to her room.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC. Apart from Maxie._

**Chapter 3**

Even with the computer on and her copy of _Pride & Prejudice_ open on her desk, she found it impossible to concentrate. Out of the window there was a faint glow from the TARDIS, standing incongruously in the garden, and despite her best efforts her eyes kept drifting to it.

After about an hour of fruitless staring, alternately at the blinking cursor and out at the spaceship, Maxie heard footsteps coming to her door. She swore to herself under her breath, and began typing nonsense.

"It's going well, Mum," she said, typing furiously. "I'll be done by eleven."

"Only if you're handing in your essay in Martian," said the voice of the Doctor from behind her ear. "Or a pretty good effort at Martian, anyway."

Maxie looked round at him. "I thought you were Mum."

He produced a pair of glasses from somewhere and slipped them on, picking up her book. "Good choice. Not very original, but it's definitely one of her best."

"I didn't choose it," Maxie said. "Set text."

"Essay title?" asked the Doctor.

"Society in Jane Austen's _Pride & Prejudice_," Maxie told him.

He grimaced. "Bit broad." Taking the glasses off, he grinned at her. "But I might be able to help."

"English teacher, as well as an alien?" she asked, taking the book back.

He shook his head. "Nope. I was a physics teacher once, for a few days. Never tried English. I had a better idea." He jerked his thumb at the window. "Down there, I have a time machine. And what better way to write about Jane Austen's society than to meet her?" 

Maxie swung around on her chair. "Travel in time?" 

"Yes."

"You'd take me?"

"That would be why I'm offering," said the Doctor, patiently.

Maxie picked up her coat, and pushed the lid of her laptop down. "All right," she said, knowing that this was an opportunity not to turn down.

The noises from the kitchen suggested Martha was still washing up, and they got out of the house without her noticing they had gone. In the TARDIS the Doctor got straight to work, rushing around the console.

"Hold on!" he said, as the column began to rise and fall. "Now …" he looked at her, hard. Maxie fidgeted under his scrutiny.

"What?" 

"Well, clothes," said the Doctor. "Come on!" 

He led her out of the console room and, to her astonishment, down a whole series of corridors and even a few flights of stairs. There were doors lining the corridors, a few tantalisingly open, others firmly shut.

"How big _is_ this thing?" Maxie asked, trotting after the Doctor.

"Big enough," he said. "Aha, here we are!" He pushed open a door. "Clothes," he said.

There were clothes enough in the room to fill a department store - racks full of coats and jumpers and dresses, shelves of shoes, pegs hanging with scarves and hats. The Doctor reached up to touch the sleeve of a battered leather jacket, ran the wool of a scarf through his fingers, and Maxie found herself wondering where all the clothes had come from and whether he had worn many of them.

"Women's stuff that side," said the Doctor, letting the scarf go. "Not really sorted, but I'm sure you know what you're looking for."

"I've seen the movies," Maxie agreed, crossing the room.

But even knowing exactly what she wanted - one of those floaty, high-waisted dresses worn in all good BBC costume dramas - Maxie found herself repeatedly sidetracked by the other options available. The Doctor seemed to have everything, from short Sixties minidresses printed with bold flowers and swirls, to elegant Roman togas, with several full, silky ballgowns thrown in for good measure. Maxie had never been much of a girly girl, but even so she found herself fingering the soft fabrics and eyeing the different styles longingly. 

Eventually she forced herself to think about the task in hand, and found a pale blue muslin dress that fitted well enough. She changed, behind the racks, and emerged carrying her ordinary clothes in a pile.

The Doctor turned out to be lurking by a maroon silk dress, looking thoughtful, but he snapped into action as soon as Maxie appeared.

"You look great," he said, taking her hand and hauling her along the corridors again back to the main room. "Perfect."

"What about you?" she asked, gesturing at his brown pinstripes and trainers.

He looked down at himself. "I'll blend in." He shrugged on his coat, and gestured towards the door. "After you, Miss Milligan." 

Maxie picked up her skirts, and began making her way towards the TARDIS doorway when a phone rang - an unfamiliar ringtone, but one the Doctor clearly recognised. Bringing out the old mobile from earlier, he flipped it open and held it gingerly to his ear. 

"Martha. Hello! Lovely to hear from you," he said. Maxie cringed. The Doctor grimaced, and held the phone at a distance. "She's fine. We're still in the TARDIS. No aliens … no, no, no …" He raised his eyebrows, and held the phone out for Maxie. "She wants to talk to you."

Maxie took the phone. "Mum?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Martha said, loud and clear from somewhere hundreds of years in the future. "It's not safe."

"We're doing homework," said Maxie. "Honest. The Doctor's helping me with my essay. We're visiting Jane Austen. How dangerous can that be?"

"He attracts danger," Martha said, a little quieter. "Everywhere he goes. Things just happen around the Doctor."

"But you travelled with him to all those places!" said Maxie. "And you're all right." 

"That's different."

Maxie looked around. The Doctor was fiddling with some gadget, trying - and failing - to look as though he was not listening.

"Why is it different?" asked Maxie. "I'm 17, Mum, I'm old enough to cope. Anyway, we're just going to go and look at some society, and then I'll come back and finish my essay. We'll be fine. Bye." 

She ended the call, decisively, and handed the phone back to the Doctor. "First off," she said, "you need a new phone. You're a time traveller, and you're still using that old thing? Second, Mum's going to kill you if anything happens to me." 

"I gathered that," said the Doctor. "And she's right, you know; I am dangerous. Martha knew that herself when she came with me her first time." He waved at the door. "Out there is the early nineteenth century. Coming?"

She followed him.

Outside the door of the TARDIS was a field, with long grass and a few disgruntled sheep. There was nothing to indicate that this was the nineteenth century, but they had definitely moved from Maxie's back garden, so she gave the Doctor points for that at least. She turned to look at the TARDIS.

"It doesn't blend in very well," she remarked.

"Doesn't need to," he responded, striding off across the field with his hands in his pockets. "Come _on_!"

Maxie hurried after him, holding up her long skirts so they did not get muddy in the grass.

They turned on to a rough sandy track, marked with the tracks of carriage wheels, and the Doctor told Maxie about the war with France. "Battle of Trafalgar was last year, or the year before, if my dates are right," he said. "Hundreds of ships, all blasting into each other. Nelson died, but the French didn't win and the war goes on." He gazed into the distance. "So many men died."

"I suppose that explains the soldiers," said Maxie, to break the awkward silence that had fallen.

"Yes it does," said the Doctor, breaking out of his contemplation. "Anyway, here in merry old England life goes on. Visits and dances and the petty goings on of a little town. Much more interesting than battles, don't you think?" 

They came out of the lane, turning on to a wider street lined with houses. Lights were flickering in windows, and as Maxie watched an open carriage paused outside one of the houses. A group of people came out of the house and got into the carriage, some of them giggling, and the carriage drove off.

Maxie stared at the carriage, and then at the Doctor, who was grinning at her with evident glee.

"Oh my God!" said Maxie. "We're in the nineteenth century! We're actually here!"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Like mother, like daughter. Didn't you believe me?"

"Well, yeah," she said, "but still … Wow."

"And," the Doctor went on, "I believe tonight is the first assembly of the year. All the local society will be there - including Mrs Cassandra Austen, her daughters, son, daughter-in-law. And a sort of niece-by-marriage, I think." He held out his angular elbow. "Shall we?" 

"I think we shall!" said Maxie, filled with a sudden bubbling joy at the situation. "Is it always this amazing, going somewhere new? Old?"

"It's not old, exactly," said the Doctor. "You're making the usual human error of thinking of time as a straight line. It's not; it's more like a … well, like a ball. Wibbly."

"Wibbly." 

"And wobbly. Sort of co-existing," he said. "Oh, I can't explain it simply. Time's not simple, that's the point. But -" the Doctor stopped walking, and looked hard at Maxie, "but you have to know that you can't do anything that will change what's already going to happen. Right here, right now, Jane Austen hasn't published any books. She will - another few years - but you can't go telling her that in a couple of centuries millions of women will be getting hot and bothered over Colin Firth being Darcy."

"All right." Maxie was a little taken aback by his intensity, but knew he was being very serious.

The assembly rooms were smaller than she had expected, but bright with candlelight and colour and music. Groups were still arriving, laughing, fluttering fans and taking off wraps. Suddenly Maxie found herself worrying about her dress, and she glanced at the Doctor to ask his opinion.

"The dress is fine," he said, apparently knowing what she was thinking. They joined a line of assembly-goers filing into the building. The man at the door looked at the Doctor in his long coat, and up at his face. "Hello!" said the Doctor, cheerfully. 

"Names?" said the man.

"Miss Maxie Milligan, and I'm Doctor John Smith," the Doctor said smoothly. "Visiting, from London."

The man's face cleared, and he waved them through. "You've done this before," Maxie said.

"I am a past master at getting into things I haven't been invited to," agreed the Doctor. He smoothly picked up two glasses from a passing servant and handed her one.

"Now you're condoning underaged drinking," Maxie said, after sipping. 

"We're in an era where they had ale for breakfast," the Doctor pointed out. She shrugged, and kept hold of the glass. 

In the main assembly room there were crowds of people; the men in dark coats and the women in pastel dresses much like Maxie's own. A small band - fiddle, accordion, a drum - was playing something lively and simple and two lines of dancers were weaving their way across the floor. The air smelt faintly smoky, overlaid with the heady scents of the partygoers. It was all very, very real.

For a while they stood and watched the dancing, the Doctor bending over now and then to point something out to Maxie. Some of the couples kept changing - the younger men and women swapping partners with each other for every dance - but others stayed together. A party of red-coated soldiers had arrived now, and a cluster of girls in white and pink were fluttering around them.

The Doctor nudged her, and pointed at a group across the room with the little finger of the hand holding his glass.

"The Austens are there," he said.

"How do you know?" Maxie asked, following his gesture.

"Never forget a face," said the Doctor. "Went to hear her read from _Mansfield Park_ once. She was older, but she hasn't changed much." He gave her a delighted grin. "Come on!"


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC. Apart from Maxie._

**Chapter 4**

The Doctor seemed to manage the introductions smoothly and easily, getting Mrs Austen relaxed and chatting in no time. Maxie stood and watched him for a few moments, impressed at the way - despite his clothes sticking out a mile - the Doctor did seem to blend in and get people trusting him.

Mrs Austen and the Doctor were soon deep in conversation about, of all things, the latest London fashions. The two younger Austens exchanged glances, and Cassandra - the older of the sisters - touched Maxie's arm and drew her off to the side.

"So how are you finding the country, Miss Milligan?" asked Cassandra, solicitously. 

"Extremely interesting," said Maxie, honestly. "Much more so than I expected."

"It's not like London, or even Bath," Jane said, "but I do admit there are plenty of diversions here. The countryside is beautiful, and I always like a walk."

Cassandra gave her sister a severe look. "In between shutting herself up inside writing!" she said. "It's hardly proper."

"Oh, do you write?" said Maxie, hoping she sounded suitably surprised.

Jane, turning pink, gave Cassandra an admonishing tap with her fan. "I scribble, a little," she said to Maxie. "Nothing of consequence, and pray do _not_ mention it to others. Cassie, my dear, I must have asked you a hundred times not to."

"She thinks her pieces are not worth the reading," confided Cassandra. "I believe she's wrong."

"Well, I am female, so it does not matter," Jane said. "Writing is not a suitable occupation, apart from letters, or so we are told. I am sure nobody apart from my family will ever be interested in my tales."

Maxie found herself feeling desperately sorry for Jane, who looked somewhat resigned and miserable as she spoke. She made a mental note to ask the Doctor when the first books were published.

"I don't think that makes sense," she said.

Jane nodded. "It is quite wrong, of course. The notion that we should be content to embroider and play dull tunes on the pianoforte and look after a house - and to do little else - something only a man could have thought up, I am sure. Perhaps in the future we may be able to be a little more independent."

Maxie wondered what they would say if she could tell them her mother was a doctor, but remembered the Doctor's admonitions and contented herself with agreeing.

Cassandra looked at them both. "I see we shall have to keep you two apart, or you shall be plotting against the established order of things," she said. "Now, Miss Milligan, tell us about your chaperone for the evening."

"My who?"

"Mr Smith," said Cassandra, nodding her head sideways at the Doctor and Mrs Austen and their animated conversation.

"Oh, the Doctor!" said Maxie. "Erm, he's my - my guardian," she improvised. "A sort of cousin. He's a doctor."

"A physician?" Cassandra seemed impressed. "He must be very clever."

Maxie was sure of that, and said so. "He's a little … he can be a bit odd, sometimes," she added.

Jane glanced over at Mrs Austen. "I believe he has my mother wrapped round his finger," she said with amusement.

As they watched, the Doctor offered his hand to Mrs Austen, who laughed, shook her head and gestured towards the three younger women. He appeared to be disappointed, but followed her gesture and came over to them.

"Miss Austen," he said, bowing towards Cassandra, "your mother has declined my offer of a dance, but I was hoping you might accept in her place."

Cassandra dimpled a smile, and rose from her seat. In a moment they were amid the dancers, tracing out a complicated pattern on the floor. Mrs Austen watched with an indulgent gaze.

"I do like to see Cassandra dancing," she said. "I hope your guardian was not offended by my refusal, Miss Milligan; I do not dance since my husband died."

"Oh," said Maxie. "I, er, I'm sure he wasn't." She looked at the Doctor and Cassandra. "He dances all right."

"He does indeed," said Jane. "And you seem surprised by that, Miss Milligan."

"He doesn't dance much," Maxie said, adding 'ask Mum about the Doctor dancing' to her lengthening list of questions.

Mrs Austen tapped the tune's rhythm out with her fingers. "It is a shame," she said. "I did love dancing with Mr Austen."

Jane reached out and took her mother's hand. "And I know he enjoyed dancing with you, Mama," she said gently.

The dance ended; the Doctor led Cassandra back to her seat, and after a few moments of persuasion managed to get Jane on her feet. About to excuse herself to go in search of a drink, Maxie found her way blocked by a tall young man in a red coat, who made her a polite bow, held out his hand and asked her to dance. He would accept none of her "but I don't know this one!" excuses, and she found herself being spun around on the dance floor. Whirling past the Doctor, she caught one of his wide, joyous grins and found herself grinning in return.

After the dance, the young soldier - whose name turned out to be Mr Morland - insisted on fetching Maxie a cup of sherbert. That turned out to be something like sorbet, and was immensely refreshing after the dance. Mr Morland was terribly solicitous and also, she decided, rather sweet, and after the sherberts were done with Maxie readily agreed to another dance. After that one of Mr Morland's friends appeared for a third, and would have tried for a fourth except the Doctor appeared out of nowhere.

"This one's mine," he said, shooing the young soldier away with a glance and taking Maxie's hand. "And easy," he added, to Maxie, leading her into the line. "Also, slow."

The music began; the dancers forming patterns folding and unfolding on the floor.

"So," said the Doctor, as they walked around each other, "enjoying yourself?" 

"Yes!" said Maxie. They parted, came close again. "Thank you," she added.

He beamed. "Absolutely my pleasure." Linking arms, he leaned into her ear. "I danced with Jane Austen!"

Maxie noticed, however, that Jane danced with very few other men, although she watched the crowd intently for most of the night. In contrast, the younger girls present seemed to be dancing almost constantly with the soldiers. But everyone was clearly having a very good time, and by the time people began to leave Maxie's feet in the light shoes she had chosen were hurting.

They picked up the Doctor's coat at the door and went out into the night. From a passing phaeton Cassandra Austen leaned out. "Goodnight, Miss Milligan! Goodnight, Doctor Smith!" 

The phaeton rattled away and Maxie and the Doctor, his hands in his pockets again, strolled off towards the field where they had left the TARDIS.

"That dance will be the talk of this town for several weeks," said the Doctor. "It'll keep the mothers gossiping and the girls excited about soldiers. A high point in an otherwise somewhat dull existence."

Maxie yawned. "Speaking of dull, I'm supposed to hand my essay in tomorrow. How'll I have time to finish it?"

"Write it on the TARDIS," suggested the Doctor. "I'll put her into orbit round a star or something, give you the time, and have you back home in time for a good night's sleep." He beamed. "Wonders of time travel."

"How do you ever get used to it?" asked Maxie.

He glanced down at her. "It's my life. It's all I've been doing for most of it."

"Yeah, but still," Maxie said. "You get to meet all these famous people! Who else have you met?"

"Janis Joplin gave me this coat," the Doctor said, thoughtfully.

"Who?" 

"Janis _Joplin_!" exclaimed the Doctor, looking at Maxie with a horrified expression. "Goodness me, what do they teach you these days?"

"Jane Austen," Maxie pointed out. "Okay, who else?"

"Shakespeare, of course," the Doctor said, as they came off the road and into the field where the TARDIS stood, gently glowing. "He didn't half like your mum. I bet you've done some of his sonnets."

"A few," said Maxie. "Summer's day, and those ones about a dark lady."

"Exactly," the Doctor said, with a quirk of his eyebrows. He drew out his key and opened the TARDIS door, leaving Maxie outside digesting this.

"What, you mean my mum's Shakespeare's dark lady?" she said, coming into the spaceship. "That's … well, she never said that!" 

"Then there was Dickens - helped me save the world, did Dickens - good bloke." The Doctor took off his coat. "Marco Polo; we'd have frozen if we hadn't bumped into him. Abraham Lincoln. Harriet Jones, pity about her." He flicked switches, and the faint hum of the TARDIS changed note. "It's not the famous people I travel for, though," he added, looking straight at Maxie. "It's the ordinary people - all you wonderful, inventive, brave, stupid humans, and Martians, and all the other species out there. That's what makes it interesting."

He consulted a screen in front of him. "All right. If you go down the corridor, turn left, left, right, left again and up the steps, there'll be a room with a computer in it - standard Earth issue, 21st century with a few tweaks. Get the essay done, and I'll drop you right back at home not long after we left."

"Left, left, right, left, stairs," Maxie repeated. "Okay. Thanks."

She followed the instructions and found the room, a neat little study with a computer and a big comfortable chair to sit in. A blank document was open on the screen, blinking away. Maxie took off her shoes, sat down, and began to type.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC. Apart from Maxie, and a few aliens introduced in this chapter._

**Chapter 5**

The essay was the easiest to write she had ever had to do, and after emailing it to herself (she was surprised to find the Doctor had internet access) and printing a copy out, Maxie found her way to the room full of costumes and changed back into her ordinary clothes.

She got lost on the way back to the console room, and tried four or five different doors trying to find the right one. One room she looked into was a vivid shade of pink; another, littered with bits of paper and notebooks. A third reminded Maxie of her mother, somehow, although there was nothing there that she recognised.

Eventually she made it back to the console room, where the central column was glowing green and the Doctor was on his back underneath the console, buzzing the little blue stick he carried around at it.

"Finished?" he asked, sticking his head out, his hair mussed.

"Finished!" Maxie waved the print-out at him.

"Home for you, then," said the Doctor, sliding out and standing up.

She sat down on the seat by the console. "Can't you get me back before we left, so Mum isn't mad?"

"No." His voice was firm. "That would cross our own timelines. That can't be done." The Doctor began twirling dials and flicking switches. "There are rules with time, Maxie, important rules that cannot be broken by anyone."

"Even a time traveller?"

"I don't rule time, and I can't break the rules," said the Doctor, pulling the big lever on the console.

The column began to move, and Maxie felt a jolt. The Doctor frowned, hit a few buttons. There was a lurch, and then a rattle. Maxie held on to the side of the seat.

"Is it supposed to be this violent?" she asked.

"It's fine. All fine," said the Doctor. He reached across the console and hit something, hard. "Just a bit of turbulence!"

Maxie was thrown off the seat. She lay on the floor for a moment, feeling an interesting bruise developing on her backside, before realising the TARDIS had come to a halt. Climbing to her feet she discovered the Doctor tapping one of the console screens.

She went to stand beside him, looking over his shoulder at the circular patterns forming and reforming on the screen.

"That's pretty," she said. "Are we here?"

"We're certainly here," said the Doctor, frowning, "but it's where here is that is somewhat debatable."

Maxie looked at him. "So we're not home."

"I don't think so. It's all right, just a little miscalculation, happens occasionally." He straightened up and looked at her. "Want to go and see?" Despite not knowing where they were, Maxie decided he looked like a small child about to open a Christmas present. It was infectious.

"Yes," she said.

"Could be dangerous."

"I'm sure it's dangerous," she said, feeling excited and reckless and scared all at once.

He winked at her. "Like mother, like daughter. Come on."

Outside the door all was dark, and silent, but they seemed to be outdoors. There was a faint tang in the air of something burnt. The Doctor pulled out the blue gadget he had used to get rid of the Bibliosks - and _that_ seemed a long time ago, now - and flicked it on so it shone like a torch. The faint blue glow illuminated a smooth path ahead of them. The Doctor checked Maxie was following, his eyes wide and bright in the dim light. Maxie swallowed, and stayed close behind.

The light bore a long, narrow tunnel into the darkness, but there still did not seem to be any buildings, or people. The Doctor said nothing as he walked slowly on.

"Where is everybody?" Maxie asked, after a while, more to break the silence than anything else.

"Not here," said the Doctor, grimly.

"Oh." She fell silent again, wishing he would return to manic activity - if nothing else, it was more distracting than the steely silent, very alien mode he was currently in.

Shortly after that the path turned. Maxie put her hands out and felt solid wall on one side, and nothing on the other. She tapped the Doctor on the shoulder, and indicated the wall.

"Hmmm." He stopped, and actually licked it. "Hmmm," he repeated, thoughtfully. "Stone … granite … no, not granite, but something like granite. Something hard … something _old_. This place is ancient, and organic - that's not been crafted by anything."

"What does that mean?"

"Well …" The Doctor turned to look at her, the blue light directed at her eyes, "well, it could mean it's deserted, or never inhabited. Or it could mean the inhabitants never needed to build. It means I've never been here before."

Maxie blinked in the light. "Good thing, or bad thing?"

"Losing your nerve, Maxie Milligan?" 

"No," she protested. "Just … wondering." She folded her arms, trying to radiate confidence. "Are we carrying on?"

He turned, and pointed the blue light back into the darkness. "Yes."

So they carried on, for what seemed like quite a long time. Maxie's eyes were hurting from staring into the gloom, and her heart seemed to be the only noise she could hear - racing inside her chest. She wondered if the Doctor could hear it; did good hearing go with whatever weird alien powers he had?

They turned another corner, and the Doctor stopped, holding up his hand. He turned off the light. Maxie found she could see, the way ahead lit up by a lavender glow. On one side, the stone wall rose up above their heads into blackness; on the other, some distance away, there were roofs of what seemed like huts.

"Maybe they did need to build," said the Doctor, his gaze on the huts. 

"Maybe they still need to build," added Maxie, as the lavender glow grew in strength.

"It's a sunrise!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Purple sun; that means we're on … but we can't be!"

"You're making no sense," Maxie observed, hurrying to catch him up as he began to bound down the slope towards the huts.

"I'm making perfect sense," the Doctor threw back, over his shoulder and his flapping coat. "I always make perfect sense - not my problem if your simple human mind can't cope with it."

"There's no need to be insulting!" said Maxie. "Slow down! I can't help being shorter than you, at least!"

He did slow down, and waited for her. "Sometimes I forget about height," he said, which still did not make sense. "I thought this planet was destroyed," he went on, as they continued towards the huts. "Legend said so. It was supposed to have suffered a great earthquake."

"What's its name?" asked Maxie. 

"Akatia," said the Doctor. "Shaking Mountain, loosely translated. This planet's people weren't terribly imaginative with names."

Maxie looked at the huts, and at the smoke beginning to rise from the roofs. "What sort of people?" she enquired.

"Um." The Doctor grinned, in a very un-reassuring way. "Well, not people people. Not as you'd define people - which, by the way, is a very speciesist way of looking at the universe. Although I'll give you points for only finding out about the rest of it in the 21st century."

"So what sort of people live here?" Maxie asked, cutting through the chatter.

He pointed.

The doors to the huts had opened, and the inhabitants were emerging into the lavender light of the sun. At first glance, they seemed not dissimilar to humans - two legs, at least, and two arms, and a head - but as Maxie watched she realised they were moving in an entirely different way, and they had blue-tinted skin.

The Doctor was already heading down to the Akatians, who by this point had noticed the strangers and were looking up in a manner that reminded Maxie of wildlife shows about meerkats.

"Are they violent?" she called.

Still hurrying down the slope, he shook his head. "Nope! Perfectly peaceable!"

Maxie was still not sure that the Doctor really knew what he was talking about when it came to these particular aliens on this particular planet, but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. She followed him.

The Akatians had frozen when they saw the Doctor approaching, and as Maxie came up he was trying to talk to them.

"Not armed, look!" he said, holding out both his hands. "Just a visitor. Visitors. I'm the Doctor, this is Maxie Milligan." 

"I'm sure they don't speak English," Maxie pointed out.

"I'm speaking their language," said the Doctor, a trifle condescendingly. "A thing the TARDIS does. Now let me talk."

"We have heard enough," interrupted one of the Akatians, a burly creature wearing something resembling a sack. "You are visitors. You broke through the dark. You will never leave." It gestured at its fellows. "Take them."

The aliens moved in, the Doctor shouting something about peaceful dialogue. Maxie felt cold, clammy hands on her arms and began to fight.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC. Apart from Maxie, and a few aliens._

**Chapter 6**

She woke, later - how much later she did not know - with a splitting headache and cold hands. She was lying on a stone floor, in a room tinged with lavender light; the Doctor was intently examining the wall opposite.

"Ugh," Maxie managed, sitting up.

"Good, you're awake." The Doctor turned from his wall examination. "You took your time."

"I think I was knocked out," Maxie said, putting a hand to her neck, which was sore.

"With a rock," the Doctor agreed. "You were struggling a lot." 

"What happened?" Maxie asked. "I thought you said they were peaceable!"

"Thought they were," said the Doctor. "Akatia is renowned in tales as being a remarkably peaceful planet. No wars in all its history - imagine that. The odd brawl, perhaps, but no battles, no murder." 

Maxie rubbed her neck. "Sounds great. What went wrong?" 

He came over and sat down by her side. "Dunno. I really don't know." Scratching his head, the Doctor shrugged. "And they took my sonic screwdriver, so we're a bit stuck, actually." 

"Your what?"

"Sonic screwdriver." 

"You mean that blue buzzy thing?"

The Doctor nodded. "That's the one. Got me out of a lot of tight spots, has my screwdriver. Anyway, they took it."

Maxie looked at him, her headache pounding inside her skull. "Mum's going to kill you, you know that?"

He leaned his head back against the wall. "S'alright, I'm overdue for a new body anyway." She must have gaped, because he smiled a wry little smile at her. "Time Lord bonus," he said. "A way of cheating death, if we're mortally wounded."

"Mum'll kill me, if you go back … different," Maxie said. "Are you, like, different after …"

"After regeneration?" The Doctor nodded. "Yes." He looked sharply at her. "But talking about Time Lord biology is not getting us out of here." He sprang to his feet and began to search through his pockets. "Why don't I have anything useful in these? I always have something useful in my pockets. No bananas, even."

Maxie stood up too, slowly, and found herself not too dizzy despite the headache. "Got any paracetamol?" she asked, hopefully.

"Nothing."

They both prowled the walls for a few minutes - three walls all of thick stone, and a fourth with a door of some sort of heavy wood that was locked. Maxie spent some time examining the door and its peculiar lock. 

Hands in - empty - pockets, the Doctor came up to her and looked at the lock too. "I'd have it open in a second if I had my screwdriver," he said mournfully.

Maxie looked at the lock, and at the Doctor, and put her hands up to her hair. "If you tell Mum I know how to do this, she'll definitely kill me," she said, unbending the hairpin the way Chris Herriot at school had shown her, the time they broke into the lost property cupboard. "Right."

The Doctor scratched his head. "I don't think Akatian locks are the same as Earth locks."

"Says the guy who locks his spaceship with a Yale lock," said Maxie, intent on her hairpin.

"Fits the camouflage," the Doctor said, sounding defensive.

Maxie put her ear to the door and twiddled the bit of wire. "Shhh." She pushed gently, and twiddled again, and the lock opened with a click. 

"There." She straightened up, triumphant. "Who needs a sonic screwdriver, anyway?"

The Doctor gave her an approving nod. "Not you, apparently. Come on."

They opened the door as quietly as they could and peered out. It gave on to a long, dark stone corridor which appeared to be empty. The Doctor beckoned, and crept out into the passage. Following him, Maxie felt her heart beating fast with nerves, and she stayed close on his sneaker-clad trail.

After about twenty metres the corridor turned around a corner. Holding up a hand, the Doctor looked cautiously around the corner first.

"Clear," he mouthed.

They crept on. Now, Maxie's hands were clammy with sweat and she was beginning to wish she had stayed at home writing a much duller essay. How could they possibly get out of this place with just a hairpin to help them?

Round another corner.

"Do you know where we are?" she whispered.

The Doctor put a finger on his lips, and shook his head. Maxie edged closer to him. 

A little further on the texture of the walls changed. The Doctor tasted the stone, grimaced, and beckoned Maxie onwards without saying anything. The silence was oppressive now, with no noise but their footsteps and breathing. There seemed to be no Akatians about, just the oppressive darkness.

They came to a junction of two corridors, stretching into the shadow to right and to left.

"Oh, I don't know," the Doctor said, aloud, breaking the silence. "We could be anywhere. Left or right?"

"What happened to being quiet?" asked Maxie, although she felt a wave of tension sweep out of her with the words. "Left."

"Any particular reason?" the Doctor questioned, turning left.

She shrugged. "No. Any particular reason why not?"

"No." 

"It seems to be getting lighter," Maxie observed, after a moment.

"It does, doesn't it?"

The light grew as they continued down the corridor. "Perhaps we're getting out?" said Maxie, hopefully, watching the Doctor's face for signs he agreed with her.

"Shhh." He stopped, listening intently.

"I can't hear anything," she said.

He took her elbow and turned her round. "Run." 

"What?"

"Just - run!" the Doctor exclaimed, and pulled her as he set off back the way they had come. 

"What?" Maxie tried again, running, as instructed, and glancing round.

Where there had been light, there was now moving shadow, punctuated with flashes of what looked like silver. On her second glance, Maxie realised the shadow was a crowd of Akatians, and the silver was the shining blades of some sort of weapon.

"Just run!" the Doctor repeated, ahead of her by a few metres already. 

Maxie had never liked PE lessons at school; gym had been her best sport, or swimming. When it came to running, she had usually lagged behind. In any case, it had been a while since she had had to run, and she was finding herself rather out of practice - and understanding why her mother insisted on going for a run at least four times a week. Evidently travelling with the Doctor involved running. And evidently she hadn't been travelling with the Doctor long enough to be good at it. As the first Akatian reached her, Maxie gave up running and put her hands up. They caught the Doctor a few moments later.

Instead of going back to the cells, the Akatians took them to a kind of amphitheatre, also made of stone. Maxie and the Doctor were placed in the centre, on a kind of stage, with armed guards ringing them and a crowd of Akatians as the audience.

"You tried to escape," announced the burly Akatian who had spoken before.

"You put us in a cell!" said the Doctor. "Of course we tried to escape." 

"The punishment is death," returned the Akatian. 

"Now Mum's not going to get a chance to kill you!" Maxie told the Doctor, furious with him all of a sudden.

"Just … just shut up," said the Doctor, waving his hand at her and turning back to the Akatians. "Death's a bit harsh, don't you think? Why kill us? Why even imprison us? What've we done to you?" 

The Akatians exchanged glances, their leathery skin crinkling. "You broke through the darkness," said the spokesman, eventually. "Nobody breaks through the darkness." 

"What, you mean it's impenetrable?" asked the Doctor. "You _can't_ break through, or you won't?" He raised an eyebrow. "Which is it? Which is it?"

The spokes-Akatian crumbled under the Doctor's stare. "It is forbidden," it said.

"Now we're getting somewhere!" the Doctor exclaimed, beginning to pace the circle of guards. Maxie watched him, a little unnerved by his intensity. "So you have this what, this law, a rule, forbidding you from going through the dark. What happened here to make that necessary? Everything says this place was destroyed. In an earthquake."

"That is what we told the universe," the Akatian said. "We wished for no war."

"Nobody wished for war with you," the Doctor said, stopping his pacing and turning to the speaker. "But you could trade, benefit from others. You don't have to keep yourselves so isolated."

"There is always war." 

"Sometimes there's war," said the Doctor, and there was a catch in his voice that made Maxie's heart clench. "Sometimes. But mostly there's life, wonderful life, and you've cut yourselves off from it. We're not looking for war. We're just passing." 

The Akatian lowered its weapon. "From where do you pass?"

The Doctor gestured at Maxie. "She's from Earth." At the blank looks, he sighed. "Sol Three? She's a human being, _homo sapiens_, terrestrial."

"We have not heard of this kind," said the Akatian. "You look alike. Are you too from this Earth?"

"I'm from Gallifrey," the Doctor said, lifting his chin as he spoke and looking the Akatian in the eye. "I understand why you don't want war. I've seen more war than you could ever dream of - I've caused more war than you could ever dream of. But stopping visitors just closes your minds from the universes out there. Why do that to yourselves?"

Murmuring amongst each other, the Akatians seemed to be considering his argument. Maxie thought about trying to support the Doctor, but then again he did not seem to need supporting on this one. She wondered what he'd meant about 'causing' war; probably a question better directed at her mother than at the Doctor himself, given that look he was currently wearing.

Finally, the Akatians stopped their murmuring and turned back to the Doctor. 

"You can go," said the spokesperson. "We can see you do not mean harm. But we ask you not to tell others of Akatia."

"Why not?" asked the Doctor. "Don't you want to learn from what others could show you?"

"We wish to remain," the Akatian responded. "We do not know your Earth, but rumour of Gallifrey reached us many cycles ago, and rumour passed on to each new brood. We do not wish our planet to die."

Maxie expected him to argue, but he nodded. "All right. If that's your wish."

The ranks of Akatians parted. The Doctor took Maxie's hand, and bent his head towards them. "Thank you."

"Thanks," Maxie put in. 

They walked slowly out of the amphitheatre, where an Akatian pointed them along a path leading back into the darkness and handed the Doctor his sonic screwdriver.

"My screwdriver!" he exclaimed, apparently overjoyed. "Brilliant!"

Lit by the screwdriver's blue light, he led the way back through the shadow; Maxie hoped it was the way they had originally come.

"What is this stuff?" she asked. "They kept talking of it as if it was solid or something."

"It's some sort of chemically-produced fog," the Doctor said. "Probably natural, caused by the planet's atmosphere reacting with this stone." He tapped the wall by their side. "Perfectly harmless, of course, but I suspect if you don't know what it is it would be pretty sinister."

Eventually they came out through the darkness and saw the TARDIS, glowing faintly, where they had left it. The Doctor gave the wooden wall a gentle pat as he opened the door. Even though the ship was still unfamiliar, Maxie herself felt reassured to see it, incongruous and solid there on the ground. She felt more reassured when they were inside and the doors had closed.

"This time," said the Doctor, beginning his round of the console, "we're going straight home. Your home."

Putting her hand in her pocket and taking out the bent hairpin, Maxie regarded it. "Yeah. All right," she said.

The Doctor threw a lever, and the TARDIS shivered into motion.

"Well done," he said, looking not at her but at a screen.

"Well done for what?" Maxie asked.

He glanced across. "For not screaming. For getting us out of the cell. Martha'd be proud of you." He smiled, a warm, sweet smile, and Maxie found herself smiling back.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC. Apart from Maxie, and a few aliens._

**Chapter 7**

Martha was pacing the living room, the phone in her hand, when they got back. The TARDIS had landed smoothly back in the garden, and the Doctor had muttered something about needing to mend the hyperdrive before sending Maxie to face the music alone. She considered forcing him to come with her, but after a moment's thought decided it wasn't worth the bother.

"Hi, Mum," she said, at the living room door.

Martha spun on one foot and stared at her, then abruptly came across and gave her a crushing hug before standing away and folding her arms.

"If you think you're _ever_ going to get any freedom again, young lady, you're severely mistaken."

Maxie held up her essay. "I finished my homework. And I'm back safe."

"You left, without telling me."

"Would you have let me go, if I had?" 

"No."

"Well, then!" said Maxie. "Mum, I'm not a little kid. I can cope. I did cope. Did you ask Grandma, before going off with him?"

Martha put the phone back on its cradle. "No. But I was much older than you then. And anyway," she added, "I didn't have any choice about the Moon. That just happened."

"Maxie has a point, though," said the Doctor, appearing in the doorway. "I seem to remember your mother being very unhappy about me." A thought flickered across his face. "I wonder if it's something hormonal, a switch that clicks in when a woman has a child?" 

"Mothers care for their children," said Martha, sharply. "That's _human_, Doctor."

"Not just human," he said. "It's universal. Multi-universal, in fact. Very few creatures anywhere that don't have that urge to protect their children. Apart from …"

"You're babbling," said Maxie, even as Martha held up her hand, suppressing a smile.

"All right, I get it," she said. "But Maxie, you know you're supposed to tell me before going out."

"I knew you'd say no," Maxie pointed out. "You say no half the time anyway, even when it's just town, so you'd definitely say no to travelling across space and time." She turned to the Doctor. "Thanks for a great evening. And the essay help."

"My pleasure," he said, one eyebrow up.

"Night," Maxie said, to the room at large, and went upstairs.

As she slowly undressed - her clothes felt sticky after all the running on Akatia - she heard her mother and the Doctor talking. Martha's voice rose and fell, her tone unmistakably annoyed; the Doctor's started quietly but grew louder as the discussion went on. Maxie wondered if they were still talking about her, and thought about creeping downstairs to listen. Instead, she turned into the bathroom and switched on the shower. 

They had stopped talking by the time she came out, rubbing her hair with a towel. From her bedroom window she saw the Doctor cross the grass to the TARDIS and go inside, but the ship stayed where it was. Maxie closed the curtains thoughtfully.

She was packing her schoolbag, Jane Austen essay inside a folder, when there was a tap on the door.

"Can I come in?"

"I'm about to go to bed," said Maxie, still irritated with her mother. "Yeah."

The door opened, and Martha came in. "Hi."

"Hi." Maxie closed her bag and pulled back her duvet, sliding into bed. Martha sat on the edge, fiddling with her wedding ring.

"I'm sorry," she said, after a second. "I shouldn't have been angry with you." 

"I get it," Maxie returned. "You're Mum, you're allowed to worry. But I _am_ able to look after myself, you know? And it was only Jane Austen."

"And - where was it? Akatia?" Martha smiled at Maxie's aghast look. "I know how to get stuff out of the Doctor. He's only good at keeping his own secrets. He said you did well. Said you reminded him of me." 

Maxie looked down at the covers. "I was terrified," she admitted, feeling grateful all of a sudden that her mother knew. 

"I'd be more worried if you weren't," said Martha. "Am I too strict?"

Her mother looked so worried, that Maxie reached out for her hand. "No. Well, a bit. More than most parents."

"The Doctor said he thought I'd give you more freedom, because of what I'd seen," Martha said. "I told him he still didn't understand us, after all these years. If you know there's danger out there, why send your child into it? He seemed to think I'd want you to see the universe because of how wonderful it is."

"Don't you?"

Her mother sighed. "I do, but I want you safe more."

Maxie patted the pillows by her side, and Martha shifted to lean against them. Maxie curled into her warmth. "Mum?"

"Mmm?" 

"Why did you stop travelling with him?"

There was a long silence. Martha stroked Maxie's arm, and Maxie decided not to press her.

"I had other people to look after. Other things to do," Martha said, eventually. "I knew I could either spend my life following him around, or I could get on with my own life. Qualify. Marry." She smiled. "It wasn't an easy decision. I nearly changed my mind once or twice."

"So you picked an ordinary life, over that?" Maxie gestured towards the window.

"Yes," her mother said. "Ordinary life isn't that bad, you know. The people who travel with him too long … I've met a couple of them, and they don't have ordinary lives. No kids. Problems with partners. I'm lucky, I have you, and your dad, and Mum and Dad and Tish and Leo."

"Do they all know about the Doctor too?" asked Maxie, thinking she had been left out of a huge family secret.

Her mother nodded. "Yes. Mum and Dad and Tish had to … they spent some time with him, when I wasn't there. Took Mum a while to trust him. She's still scared by him, but she knows now he wouldn't hurt us."

"I don't think he would," Maxie said, feeling safe and warm in her mother's arms. "He's kind of crazy, though."

"He's a genius," said Martha. "All his people were geniuses." They fell silent. The room was dark, but the glow of the TARDIS came in faintly through the curtains. "If he asks you to go with him, say no," Martha said, suddenly.

"Will he?" 

"Ask?" Martha shrugged. "He might do. I don't know how long he's been alone. He … he gets lonely. I think he likes having someone around to show off to. But it's dangerous, sweetheart, and I don't want to lose you. And you ought to finish school."

"He's a time traveller," Maxie pointed out.

Martha untangled herself from their embrace, and stood up. "My first trip ended up being longer than planned," she said, "a bit like yours. We did Shakespeare, and then New New York, and then somehow we ended up in our New York before coming home. And he landed me the morning after I'd left with him. I felt like I'd been away months - like a completely different person - and I remember seeing Mum again that evening. It was amazing to see her, and she thought I'd just said goodbye to her at the pub the night before. I'd changed in a day. Nothing was ever the same again. Finishing medical school was the hardest thing I ever did, because of him." She went to the door, and opened it. "Please, for me - at least ask him to wait until you've done your baccalaureate. At least? Preferably university too."

Maxie snuggled into her duvet and yawned. "I suppose for him he could come back then and it'd be like tomorrow. All right. Anyway, he might not ask." 

"He might not. Sleep well, darling."

"Night, Mum."

Martha closed the door gently, and Maxie closed her eyes, drifting quickly off to sleep after the unexpected length of the day. In the middle of the night she awoke to the sound of the TARDIS, and in the morning there was just a square of flattened grass to show where it had stood. She almost wondered if the whole affair had been an odd dream, but there was her essay, and in her jacket pocket a bent hairpin.

Downstairs there was silence, and a note for Maxie by the cereal boxes on the kitchen worktop informing her her mother had gone to work, not absconded in the TARDIS. She crumpled the paper and threw it away, ignored the cereal, and went thoughtfully off to school.

**14 months later**

The school entrance hall was full of parents and teenagers crouching round computer screens or examining print outs. The atmosphere was broken at intervals by squeals of joy or tears of disappointment.

"Well, I'm astonished," said Tom Milligan, holding his daughter's results. "You did extraordinarily well."

Maxie thumped him lightly. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." She looked at the numbers again, and beamed. "But yeah, I'm surprised too."

"I'm not," said Martha, giving Maxie a hug. "I knew you'd do well."

"I'm free!" exclaimed Maxie, bouncing a bit. "No more school!"

"University, next term," Tom said.

"Holiday first," said Maxie. "Em and I thought we might go camping."

It took them some time to leave, because of having to find out how Maxie's friends had done, but finally they were out in the summer sun and arguing over where to have a celebratory lunch and how long Maxie could stay out that night.

"Midnight," Tom suggested.

"But everyone else will be out longer," Maxie protested. "I'll get a taxi home. With Em. 2am." 

"One," said Martha. "And no later."

"If we're celebrating," said a voice, "then I propose the seventh moon of Yanis in the Gamma System. They do a great fizzy wine. And a sort of cake thing, difficult to explain. Good to eat." 

The Milligans exchanged glances, and Maxie felt her already-bubbling excitement rise up into a whoop.

"Doctor!" said Martha, stepping forward and hugging him.

"Doctors Jones and Milligan," the Doctor returned, shaking hands with Tom. "Miss Milligan." He grinned at Maxie. "Well? Fizzy wine and cake? And I hear congratulations are in order." 

"How did you know we'd be here?" Maxie asked. "And how do you know how I did?"

The Doctor rubbed his eyebrow with a finger. "Ah. That's what you'd call a cheap trick. Strictly illegal timeline crossing. Worth it, though." He shared a look with Martha. "Cake!"

"I'll pass," said Tom.

Maxie turned to him. "Dad!" 

He gripped her shoulder, briefly. "It's all right, love."

"Your dad doesn't think time travel's quite right," the Doctor put in. "But Martha? Maxie? Do I need to point out again there will be cake, and fizzy wine?"

Maxie nodded. "Cake. Let us eat cake!"

"She never said that, you know," said the Doctor. "Said something else entirely - I should know."

Martha folded her arms. "I don't know. I mean, I …"

The Doctor looked at Maxie. Maxie looked at the Doctor. They exchanged nods, and both seized one of Martha's hands.

"We're going for cake and fizzy wine on the ..."

"Seventh moon," the Doctor supplied, towing them both along a sidestreet.

"Of wherever it was in the Gamma System," said Maxie. "You two can tell me more stories, and then we can get back in time for lunch with Dad. One o'clock this afternoon, at the Italian."

Martha began to laugh. "All right. You win, both of you."

"I always do," the Doctor said smugly. "Off we go!" He opened the door of the TARDIS, and stood back to let them both inside.

A short while later the TARDIS dematerialised, leaving Tom Milligan staring at an empty space.

THE END


End file.
